HK stocks rise 1.4 pct, led by banks, telecoms

By Nerilyn Tenorio

HONG KONG, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Hong Kong shares climbed 1.4 percent on Wednesday, with financials leading the charge, while Chinese telecom stocks gained on renewed speculation that 3G licences will be issued by the end of the year.

Financial stocks climbed after Central Huijin, an arm of China's sovereign wealth fund, said it had raised its holdings of A shares in China Construction Bank (0939.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) (601939.SS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz). [ID:nSHA264730].

Construction Bank's shares jumped 3.4 percent, ICBC (1398.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), China's largest lender, rose nearly 3 percent and global lender HSBC Holdings (0005.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) gained 1.7 percent.

Major Chinese telecom companies and telecom equipment suppliers got a boost from renewed talk that the long-awaited 3G licences may be released on the mainland soon.

"There were expectations that the new policy measures that are coming out soon in China -- our own rescue plan -- may include the issuance of 3G licences in the near term. They're just rumours, but that helped the telecom sector today," said Linus Yip, strategist with First Shanghai Securities.

China Unicom (0762.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the smaller of the country's two mobile operators, rallied 5 percent, while industry leader China Mobile (0941.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) gained 2.5 percent.

Centron Telecom (1155.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), China's No. 3 maker of wireless coverage equipment, surged 14 percent, while rival Comba Telecom Systems (2342.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) soared 29 percent. China Wireless (2369.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), a wireless solution and equipment maker, vaulted 41 percent.

The benchmark Hang Seng Index .HSI closed up 182.81 points at 13,588.66. A total of HK$37.96 billion ($4.9 billion) worth of shares were traded, down from HK$38.5 billion on Tuesday.

The China Enterprise index of Hong Kong-listed Chinese companies .HSCE finished up 3.3 percent at 7232.54.

Property stocks bucked the broad market trend after Bank of China (Hong Kong) (2388.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) joined the city's major lender, HSBC (0005.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), in raising Hong Kong mortgage rates, helping to drag the blue chip property index .HSNP down 1.8 percent to 15,236.59.

A spokeswoman for the Chinese bank said on Wednesday it would increase the mortgage rate by 50 basis points to between 3.5 and 3.75 percent with effect from Dec 4.

Sun Hung Kai Properties (0016.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) fell 6 percent, while rival Cheung Kong (0001.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) dropped 2.7 percent.

Hong Kong property transactions fell to a 17-year low in November, with home sales plunging from a year earlier as a deepening global financial crisis shattered potential buyers' confidence in the market. [ID:nHKG273377]

Hopson Development (0754.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) bucked the weak property trend, surging 21.7 percent after the Chinese property developer said late on Tuesday it had made a successful bid for a piece of land in Beijing for 859.2 million yuan.

Shares of CITIC Pacific (0267.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) slid 7.3 percent as the stock resumed trading after the steel-to-property conglomerate urged shareholders to support a $1.5 billion bailout plan. [ID:nHKG294627] (Additional reporting by Donny Kwok, Editing by Anne Marie Roantree)